


Vinnie's Choice

by rosa_himmelblau



Category: Wiseguy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-27
Updated: 2019-06-27
Packaged: 2020-05-20 19:45:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19383487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosa_himmelblau/pseuds/rosa_himmelblau
Summary: Dial the phone.  When your hands stop shaking, dial the phone.But who do you call?





	Vinnie's Choice

**Author's Note:**

  * For [killabeez](https://archiveofourown.org/users/killabeez/gifts).



Vinnie stubbed out his cigarette—his third one in the last half hour—in an ashtray that he would have bet cost more than his first car. Then he picked up the telephone, put it back down, lit another cigarette. He had to call someone. He had to call someone **soon**. He just wasn't sure who to call.

Uncle Mike was the obvious choice; he was an OCB agent and there was a dead body on his living room floor—a body he'd made dead with a gun he'd been carrying because a couple of weeks earlier Sonny had told him that with things heating up with Pat-the-Cat, he should start carrying, just in case. Just in case you have to shoot someone in your own living room wasn't mentioned. Vinnie picked up the phone again, saw how badly his hand was shaking, and put it back down again. He's finish the cigarette first.

If he called Uncle Mike, that would lead to Frank who would pull the plug on the investigation, his undercover career, maybe even his career with the Bureau, maybe. He could defend the shooting more easily than he could have shooting Tony San Martano—the mark of the wire around his neck was pretty much all the defense he'd need—

But the case wasn't over! He didn't want to be pulled off before they could indict Mahoney and Patrice, dammit! And even if Frank didn't pull him out, how could he possibly explain the involvement of the police? He couldn't. He couldn't.

So, that led to the second phone number he'd half-dialed and hung up before finishing. He could call Sonny and tell him that he had good news and he had bad news. The good news was that he didn't have to worry about what he was going to do with a brother-in-law with the IQ of a not-very-bright houseplant. The bad news was that Aldo Baglia was lying dead on his floor. Oh, and there were bloodstains all over the place, too.

He could defend the shooting to **that** side too, since a guy lying in wait in your dark apartment and trying to kill you when you walked in—that was grounds for murder for the mob, too. And then Sonny would help him get rid of the body, right?

Right?

Vinnie sat down. Maybe. That was one thing Vinnie was worried about—how did Aldo get into Vinnie's apartment in the first place? Did Sonny know about this? Was Sonny **behind** it? Before his engagement, Vinnie would have said that was impossible, but Sonny had changed. It was no longer outside the realm of possibility that Sonny would have him popped. But then, it wasn't outside the realm of possibility that Aldo had done this on his own. He wasn't what Vinnie would have called a self-starter, but Vinnie had the idea that when he got an idea to do something, he did it—usually wrong, or maybe just the wrong thing. This could easily be an example of both, except for the smarts it would take to get to Vinnie's apartment in the first place, which led back to _Does Sonny know?_ which led back to _Call Lifeguard, call Frank,_ which was where he'd started.

_You could just get rid of the body yourself._ Vinnie really wished he hadn't thought that. _You're an OCB agent, you could get rid of the body and clean up in here so well nobody would ever know the difference. You could do that. And then you could make your case and nobody would ever be the wiser. And you could see if Sonny wanted you dead or—_

_Are you out of your mind? Call Lifeguard! Tell him you need Frank here **right this very minute**! Do it, stop worrying about Sonny, if he was behind it he'll deny it anyway—_

_Maybe it was Theresa. Maybe she got an idea that you mean more to Sonny than she does and she wanted to eliminate the competition. She could have told Aldo anything, and as long as "any shot you have hangs on me marrying Sonny" was at the end of the story, Aldo would probably do it. If Sonny **isn't** behind it, what's he going to think about you shooting his brother-in-law to-be?_

_So do what you should have done half an hour ago: call Frank. You've got enough to send Sonny away—_

_Except you don't want to send Sonny away, and if you have to do it, you want to at least be able to send some of the bigger bad guys along with him—_

_Moron. There's a dead body on your floor. You killed him. You can't just sit there smoking and acting like you've got all the time in the world to deal with this! Put out the cigarette, pick up the phone, and call Uncle Mike!_

Vinnie got up and went back to the ashtray, put out his cigarette. Then he picked up the phone and started dialing.

**Author's Note:**

> [I know it's not a dead hustler, but your question—or, rather, my answer to your question—inspired it, so you get first read.]
> 
> This used to have a different title, but I hated it.


End file.
